Bluebells and Poultry

[Gary Prentice]

1 hour ago, skc101fc said:

With all this buildung hardware, it doesn't sound like just 8-12 birds ?

Maybe he just wants to get away from the wife.

 

It sounds a lot of structures, but the tool shed is two square metres, the breeding shed about five and the man cave/welfare/brew building is, I think, 25.

[monkeybusiness]

I’d imagine getting an architect involved with a suggested chicken hut in the woods has put the planners on full defensive mode, and the TO is going to pull every angle to counter what appears to be a foot in the door for future development. Or am I being cynical?

[Gary Prentice]

We’re all cynical, which is a shame.

 

The applicant can’t win, do it properly by employing an architect to act as a consultant to get approval raises concerns or DIY it and get refused.

 

But you’re probably right.

[Gary Prentice]

Ive no idea about how the client got ownership, whether he owns the whole woodland and only plans to use part of it or what. 

 

 

Currently it it looks like it’s under no management at all, full of rhododendron and no real regeneration at all. It was TPO’d  in 1958 and probably not looked at since.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

24 minutes ago, EdwardC said:

Definitely sounds more to it than meets the eye. As for Woodlands.co.uk they're not interested in good woodland management. They just have a business plan to make money out of woodland plot creation, which fragments woodlands, takes it out of good management, puts it into the ownership of people who by and large have no idea of woodland management but lots of money, and makes woodlands commercially unviable.

I wasn't advocating the company Ed, just signposting to some of the references on their easy to find web page.  

 

Are you being a bit harsh on them though.... (I don't have a horse in that particular race btw)

 

An equal generalisation might be - It's a capital fund which buys larger plots from agricultural owners (that were in it for the investment return rather than much genuine interest in good forestry / woodland management) that have exploited the subsidy / tax benefits which are generally coming to the end of their useful draw-down by the time WL.C.UK. get their hands on them.  Divvy them up into smaller parcels, put an access road in and sell on at an extortionate profit to hobby woods folk.  

 

Granted, probably not a viable commercial output once divvied up, but conversely, where has commercial forestry got us in the preceding 70 years?  Hardly a glowing record whereas personal investment and interest at least has the potential to re-wild / naturalise previously clear felled and mono planted forest blocks and it is a means by which people are reconnecting with nature...  Surely not ALL bad?

 

 

[Stubby]

1 hour ago, Gary Prentice said:

Ive no idea about how the client got ownership, whether he owns the whole woodland and only plans to use part of it or what. 

 

 

Currently it it looks like it’s under no management at all, full of rhododendron and no real regeneration at all. It was TPO’d  in 1958 and probably not looked at since.

Offer to pop in there and do first thinning Gary

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

1 hour ago, EdwardC said:

Destruction of  Ancient Woodland, non-compliance with The Forestry Act, and various Regulations, planning legislation. Woodlands that once had a management plan, after fragmentation, no longer do. Every owner has a different idea of 'management', each owner can remove their 20 m cube of timber a year, if one woodland becomes 10, that's 20m cube to 200m cube. The woodland character changes as trailers and caravans are parked in the woods, benders, fire pits, camping areas etc built turning ancient woodland and other woodlands into what many see as an extension of their back garden.

 

They have a business plan, which from what I've seen, is buy a wood, fragment it, sell it for about 10 times what they paid. The margin is sufficient to allow payment over the odds for a commercially viable woodland, sell to amateurs, which stops woodlands being managed effectively.

 

No, not being harsh. I've dealt with them and I didn't like what I saw, neither do a lot of other professional foresters

A fair retort...  Especially if you've seen it in effect.

[Mick Dempsey]

1 hour ago, EdwardC said:

Destruction of  Ancient Woodland, non-compliance with The Forestry Act, and various Regulations, planning legislation. Woodlands that once had a management plan, after fragmentation, no longer do. Every owner has a different idea of 'management', each owner can remove their 20 m cube of timber a year, if one woodland becomes 10, that's 20m cube to 200m cube. The woodland character changes as trailers and caravans are parked in the woods, benders, fire pits, camping areas etc built turning ancient woodland and other woodlands into what many see as an extension of their back garden.

 

They have a business plan, which from what I've seen, is buy a wood, fragment it, sell it for about 10 times what they paid. The margin is sufficient to allow payment over the odds for a commercially viable woodland, sell to amateurs, which stops woodlands being managed effectively.

 

No, not being harsh. I've dealt with them and I didn't like what I saw, neither do a lot of other professional foresters

There’s a large patch of woodland near where I used to live in West Sussex, I walked with some family recently and it was all parceled up with caravans, wooden cabins and general new age detritus.

 

Had, as you say, been sold in plots to private individuals.

 

I blame Countryfile.

 

 

[Countryboy]

I own a stand alone parcel of woodland with roads at either end. I have access at one end of the wood. At the other end there is a five bar gate that has been there many years. I applied to the Council to have a dropped kerb put in so I could use the gate. This would make it so much easier to get into this end of the wood during the winter. At present I have to drive the length of the wood. The Council has told me they would block any attempt to get permission.

I am in constant contact with the woodland Officer from the Forestry Commission and they have been very helpful on what I have done so far. I have planted a fair few trees, and also hedges along the boundary.

[difflock]

A bit like horsey folk with their sorry collection of shelters and other crap in the corners of fields they keep their horses in.

Anyway all sounds contrived as a ruse to get around planning regs in the longer term.

mth